Speaker Name(s): Andrew E. Simor, M.D., F.R.C.P.C.Description: Andrew E. Simor, M.D., F.R.C.P.C.
Sunnybrook Women's College Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto
Each year influenza viruses cause widespread infection, affecting tens of thousands of Canadians. However, every few decades the virus undergoes genetic changes that result in the emergence of a new and more virulent strain that causes a pandemic, a global outbreak of disease. The last major influenza pandemic occurred in 1968. World health authorities recognize that we are overdue for another pandemic to occur, and strains of avian influenza ("bird flu" virus) are thought to be the most likely candidates This presentation will review the risk of avian influenza becoming the next pandemic, and will consider public health planning to meet this challenge impacts of globalization. Through health and disease, it will suggest that our secu?rity and way of life may be at risk as governments and other agencies struggle by using increased surveillance, quarantine, and reductions in civil rights to combat these dreaded diseases.